HOLLYWOOD hunk Brad Pitt was on everybody's mind at a lavish wedding after he prevented a Maltese millionaire from attending.

Dozens of internationals gathered to see world-renowned ballroom dancing champions Carol Donnelly and Vince Devalle tie the knot last Saturday - but Mediterranean shipping magnate Charles Cassar could not make it.

While his daughter Catherine acted as one of Carol's seven bridesmaids, he was busy transporting the film star and crew from the new movie Troy between Malta and its neighbouring islands.

'He was disappointed not to be able to come,' said Carol, of Little Sutton. 'But he has sent back lots of stories.

'He says he had to lend Brad his best china because he didn't want to eat off the other crockery!'

But the missing guest did not disap-point the happy couple too much.

More than 120 family and friends and fellow dancers from across the globe attended - with people coming from faraway countries such as Italy, Austria, Malta, France, Germany, Portugal and Japan.

The service was held at the Christ Church, Port Sunlight, and then limousines escorted the wedding party to the reception at Ellesmere Port's Holiday Inn, which has recently been refurbished after a major fire.

Going against tradition, the bride gave a welcome speech in five different languages.

'It was a traditional English wedding and I wanted to keep to that as much as possible,' said Carol. 'The ladies all wore hats.

'But we also tried to incorporate traditions from other countries. For example, in Malta the bride gives all the men wine while the groom gives all of the women the wine, so that's what we did.

'And we found our guests really appreciated the little touches like that. Mind you, we did teach them a few things as well.

'The Japanese loved the Hokey Cokey and The Birdie Song.'

Carol and Vince say the language barrier was not too much of a problem and their international guests communicated by signing to each other.

During the evening, some of the 23 Japanese guests, dressed in Kimonos, treated the party to a traditional dance.

'It was beautiful, they were so elegant,' said Carol. 'Afterwards, everybody tried to do some Japanese dancing.

'A lot of friendships were formed during the day, our English friends have been invited to Japan and so forth.'

For their honeymoon, Vince and Carol will travel southern California. But to make the holiday complete, they will stop off in Chicago where they have been invited to compete in the Chicago Crystal Ball Championships.

The pair - who boast a string of titles, including the Hong Kong Championships - were introduced seven years ago when they both needed to find new dancing partners.

And Vince says it was love at first sight. 'It was for me anyway,' he said. 'We immediately clicked but we didn't get involved romantically for a few years.'

Vince proposed to Carol two years ago at the prestigious Raffles Hotel in Singapore while they were competing in the Asian Pacific Championships.